In the oven room of Tockerbrot, Lud and the apprentice Milly were hustling.
“This is the third tier.”
Lud was a baker. The task he was now performing was closer to building than it was to baking.
“Hey, Lud? Is that really a birthday cake?”
“Uh... Mm-hmm.” Lud answered Milly’s question a little evasively, his face hiding something. “I mean... you know. I’m a baker, so I don’t want to make a cake that’s just for show.”
After he sent Sven out as a messenger, Lud began baking something indispensable for her birthday party later today: a birthday cake. Lud was an excellent baker of bread, but he could also make pastries and sweets. When he applied himself, he was more skilled than the average chef at a pâtisserie. However, this cake was to celebrate the birthday of Tockerbrot’s popular waitress. So he wanted to bake a birthday cake worthy of a great baker.
“In the center, there’s a soufflé base with thin layers of bread shaped like a cake, alternated with layers of rum-soaked fruit and cream. It’s luxurious. I had to close the shop to make it.”
This is why Lud was a flurry of activity. Earlier, as a kind of apology and at practically no charge, Lud had delivered bread that would keep for a while to the mine, town hall and schools, where he usually made daily deliveries. The bakery’s clients respected Tockerbrot, and Sven was, in a sense, a celebrity in Organbaelz, so they had all agreed to the closure for the sake of the celebration.
“A cake made with bread... It’s like a pancake!” As if finding this funny, Milly laughed. Actually, Milly knew the two were quite different. She understood Lud’s desire to celebrate this special day with a fine product—in other words, a cake that showcased his skills—so she just chattered away.
“Did you know?” Another voice joined in. It was Jacob, who stood in the doorway to the oven room. “The ‘pan’ in ‘pancake’ means a frying pan. Long ago, that’s what they called sweets baked on a flat plate.”
“Oh... I didn’t know that.” Jacob listened to Lud’s explanation, and looked like he had nowhere to go.
“How did it go with Charlotte and the major?”
“Hm?”
Their reunion had gone on for quite some time.
“Well, they’re seeing each other for the first time in over ten years, so I left them alone. But I think they’ll show up in time for Sven’s birthday party.”
“Oh, that’s good.” Looking at the boy’s puckish, smiling face, Lud understood the reunion had gone well.
“But why do my parents have to attend?” Jacob had agreed because it was a request from his friend, but he didn’t really understand the reason. “Sven... Um... Does she know my father?”
“No, I doubt they’ve met.”
That was because Sven hadn’t been created from the assistive A.I. known as Avei until after Blitzdonner had disappeared. Their relationship wouldn’t have obliged Blitzdonner to attend.
“Then why?”
“Because I don’t know any other married couples.”
“Huh?”
“Agh!” Lud had whispered his answer reflexively. Then he panicked and covered his mouth.
“Um, are you plotting something?”
“No... not at all!” Lud quickly looked away from Jacob, who was staring at him with piercing, suspicious eyes.
“It’s something you can’t even tell me?”
“Um...” Sensing the boy’s cold glare behind him, Lud could find no words to say in response.
“Hmm... Oh well.”
But that coldness disappeared.
“When someone who can’t hide anything is hiding something, it’s for someone else’s benefit.”
“You...”
Jacob had said it with some sarcasm, but he trusted Lud, so he understood there was a reason why Lud couldn’t talk about it. They were separated by age, but Lud was proud to have a friend with such a generous spirit.
“Thank you. But...”
“But?”
“It isn’t for someone else. This is... for me.”
“Huh?” Lud’s words surprised Jacob.
Lud sometimes didn’t take his own feelings seriously enough. He was strong. He also fully knew how to make use of his physique, giving him advanced combat abilities. Even if Jacob tried every method he could think of... Even if he used poison or small arms, it would be very difficult just to bring Lud to his knees. However, being strong didn’t necessarily mean one could do anything.
And this was also true for Lud. Nonetheless, Lud often chose a path that could harm himself. So his friend was surprised to hear him say this was for his own benefit.
“Hey, Lud? Why did you decide to celebrate Sven’s birthday?”
It was a natural thing to do for close friends and family. But Jacob knew this was different. He knew because of the disturbance at the shop recently. He had seen with his own eyes that the silver-haired girl wasn’t human. So he didn’t think this celebration was just a birthday party.
“Hmm... I’m not exactly sure.” Lud responded as if deep in thought, but with a calm face, as if he were deciding tonight’s supper. “I guess I want to make amends.”
Amends for all the days he had pretended not to notice. He wanted to put an end to the time when he had thought that was enough for him, and for Sven as well. After that, he didn’t know what would happen. He might lose everything he had benefited from but taken for granted. Nonetheless, he wanted to do this.
Then he could stop being the soldier called the Silver Wolf and become Lud the baker at a small bakery in a small town. The greatest operation in the life of Lud Langart was just beginning.
“Well then?”
Sven returned to Organbaelz with Sophia and Daian in tow. But when she turned her feet toward Tockerbrot, Sophia stopped her. “His letter said to come to the church on the hill.”
Sven responded with a question. “What for?”
“I don’t know.” Sophia answered with a face that, despite her words, looked like she actually did know.
Those two are a lot alike that way...
She had heard that Sophia and Lud had been childhood friends, and Sven knew Sophia had been Lud’s superior officer.
“And I don’t know where the church is, so you’ll have to lead me.”
“Okay.”
The church on the hill wasn’t far. An adult could walk there in ten minutes.
“Isn’t it ironic?” Without thinking, Sven muttered to herself.
Soon after she came to Organbaelz, terrorists had used the church to store weapons and ammunition, and when Lud learned of it, he had almost been killed. Now she was taking the military officer Sophia there.
Come to think of it...
Suddenly, she realized something. It had been one year since she came here. The feeling that only one year had passed was mixed with the feeling that a whole year had passed.
A lot has happened...
Her time here had been much more intense than her days as assistive A.I. in a military weapon, and many more unpredictable events had occurred. She had fought terrorists, was embroiled in an airship hijacking, clashed with the Schutzstaffel, and was dragged into a rebellion in the royal capital. And it had been even more difficult for her to make people smile in her everyday life. That had been harder than any military operation. And the joy when she was successful was...